I know for the sake of the Shadowlands that this expansion isn’t focusing on Azeroth itself. My understanding is that the Scourge is currently running rampant now that there’s no Lich King to keep them in check, and those who didn’t come to the Shadowlands are dealing with that. I could be wrong but that’s what I assumed was happening.
At the end of BFA, we give up the power of our heart necklaces (and therefore the Azerite that empowered them) to shoot a laser beam at N’Zoth and so yeah, our weapons deplete and become useless. But is Azerite still popping up all over the place? We still have a giant sword sticking out of the planet. I’m curious if this previously weapon’s grade crystalized material is still being found, fought over, and/or has any use to us.
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Canonically… you’ll find out when your character comes back from the lands of the dead. That portalling you do from Oribus to Stormwind and Orgrimmar… that doesn’t happen in canon.
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Our hearts of Azeroth still work. I believe the reason why they don’t work in the Shadowlands is because we are in a different plane of reality (i.e. no longer in any version of the Great Dark Beyond).
Lore wise, I still think Azerite is a thing. However blizzard wants to think that killing N’zoth = healing Azeroth from that stab wound… which still has the stabby thingy inside it.
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What are you talking about?
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Pretty much this. Defeating N’Zoth was treated as us saving Azeroth. Everyone was happy and getting on with their lives until mean ol’ Sylvanas ripped a hole in reality to the afterlife and yeeted Anduin into the sky. Azerite and its cause, Sargeras’ sword being stabbed into the planet, aren’t addressed in the slightest. Blizz was asked about it and their answer, paraphrased, was “There’s more to come with that storyline.” So basically “wait and see”.
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Azerite is essentially the “blood” of Azeroth herself. It is her “life essence.” (Basically just infused into rock material.)
As long as the titan Azeroth… is in Azeroth… (yeah,) then Azerite is still a thing.
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Sorry I meant the power of our necklaces - I said weapons by accident.
Well the Heart of Azeroth is still active and powerful, just cut off when in the Shadowlands. It was never drained like the Artifact weapons.
But gosh darn it… it still won’t be working in the next expansion.
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It technically works in Shadowlands just not in the new zones. What makes you think they’ll completely deactivate it next expansion?
The beam that killed N’zoth wasn’t actually produced by the Heart of Azeroth. It was re-originating energy from the Forge of Origination in Uldum, channeled to us by MOTHER from the mechanisms in the Chamber of Heart. The HoA basically served as a sort of Focusing Iris to centralize and direct the blast.
The HoA is inactive in-game because being in the Shadowlands sufficiently cuts us off from Azeroth’s world-soul to render its Azerite powers dormant. The HoA remains empowered (and the reason we - but not our lore character allies - were able to activate the First Ones’ Waystone in the Maw) and we’ve been given no concrete reason to assume Azerite in general lost its potency either.
Theoretically, one might even speculate that having stockpiled arsenals of Azerite and Azerite-forged weaponry during BfA could be how the Alliance and Horde have been managing to hold back the Scourge in our absence.
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Honestly, would it even matter?
Azerite ended up being such a nothing burger in BfA. I had personally hoped that it would essentially be the Atom Bomb for the setting, something that revolutionized warfare and upped the scale of destruction to something unsustainable.
But aside from encountering the occasional “Azerite Tank” or whatever, it was such an empty plot thread. It was never actually used for anything other than the PC shoving it into their throats.
Azerite was supposed to “change everything”. But it really didn’t.
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They also said Gallywix’s cannon would go off by the end of BFA and that’s why he was stockpiling Azerite but whatever happened to that plot?
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Speaking of Gallywix, it’s notable that when he first got the chunk of Azerite he would later use as the top of his cane it was inert - it wasn’t ‘quickened’ until after Sargeras stabbed the planet and Azerite started popping up all over the world.
It’s possible that with the sword more or less rendered inert and the forces of N’zoth thwarted that Azerite will eventually be rendered inert again and lose its power. I wouldn’t be surprised if when we eventually return to Azeroth that’s the explanation we’re given as to why the Heart of Azeroth isn’t a thing anymore and all that stockpiled Azerite turns out to be useless.
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I’m firmly convinced that was the original plan for the expansion storyline, but it got scrapped after preparation for it had already been put into the game.
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Because in case you haven’t noticed… it was deactivated in this one. Are you still wearing your Heart of Azeroth?
Sorry I thought you meant working period, not just in current content.
Here’s the thing assuming that the things still work, You’re still not going to be using ilevel 70 gear when the next expansion’s mean is at level 250 and above.
I just mean we can use the Heart outside of current content. I still use it while running old raids because it activates Azerite gear.
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Again. are you going to be using that azerite gear instead of ilevel 200 and above?